This design of character does hold some gothic traits such as the mouse skull on the character’s head however, some may associate him for a fantasy character, due to the characters wings and how he is dressed. As my target audience is 12, the aesthetic needs to be clear to interoperate and be easy to understand. Therefore, upon development I must use clear horror codes and conventions to apply to my aesthetic, this way this ensures that I maintain an obvious indication of the genre through my aesthetics and characters that my target audience will understand.

One of my main focuses of my characters was introducing a state of realism and making sure that my characters would be able to relate to my target audience; especially the protagonist of the film. As my plot of my film introduces and explains rules, morals and life lessons, it is important to introduce realistic standards within my aesthetic, setting and characters. This helps the audience understand that the situations and scenarios included within my storyline can happen towards my audience members, making the overall message of my film have more of an impact. Therefore my characters are mainly based within the 12 age range rather than adults and teachers, and are dressed similarly than some of the audience, ensuring a strong connection between text and the target audience. After finding our target

audience of the age certificate rated 12, I found that this character may be too inappropriate to be associated with a school setting. Although according to the British Board of Film Classification, ‘There may be nudity, but in a sexual context it must be brief and discreet’. I found that in a school environment nudity of characters is inappropriate and may show the wrong message about the school rules. Therefore, although nudity and overly sexualised female characters is a key characteristic portrayed in many horror films, I not use this character within my film. Although, I find that the contrast between the characters uncommon and unnatural skin colour is very effective and the character’s hair flows very well and gives an effect as if underwater, therefore I may consider her under development to include this character within the swimming scene is she is covered up enough. I will also need to consider introducing another key convention of the horror genre to introduce within the aesthetic that will be appropriate for the rated 12 certificate.

This design was inspired

with a wolf-like character,

often found in horror

classics such as ‘An

American Werewolf in

London’ and ‘The Wolf

Man’. Despite my target

audience possibly not

getting this reference, I also

considered parents

watching my short film, and

used this character as

nostalgia for an older

audience, who may

understand the reference.

As this character’s basis is

featured within another

horror film, I find its

monster features are easy to

associate within my film.

Overall I have decided that I will not use the characters that can be interoperated as fantasy characters such as the ones below, as they do not have a realistic interpretation of a human, therefore making a strong connection between audience and text, however, I will focus and develop on the more realistic children figures, which will be easier to sculpt when making my figures due to the lack of strong detailing. Additionally, I find that the story behind the characters death which relates to the overall look of the character is more effective on the audience, not only as a backstory but in development upon identification of the horror genre.

Like the other characters that relate to the fantasy genre, I also find that this character is associated with this genre instead of horror. However, I find that the facial expression of this character, holds a gothic characteristic that is similar to those shown within Tim Burton’s characters. I will later develop some of my characters to contain some of the characters features in order to create enigma of characters facial features and body language.

I find these characters the easier to associate and connect with, as they look the most normal, yet due to the aesthetic linked with morals and the characters death, still give an association to the horror genre. For example, the character with the eyepatch represents the lesson of ‘Don't run with sticks’ and the women represents greed. These are all results of bad morals and are effective aesthetically towards my target audience.